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Showing posts from February, 2008
Well, I couldn't very well post and NOT include a food picture, right? This was brownies Elisheva made two nights ago (Tuesday)... Because tonight's supper was already made (lasagna, by Ted), I decided to augment it with fresh homemade bread. Catch was, I was supposed to go out tutoring this afternoon, so I decided to be smart and make a "sponge" for the bread before our library program this morning, then quickly finish the bread between lunch, putting the kiddies to bed and going out tutoring. How do you spell "Ha ha ha" again? Anyhow, things kind of degenerated around 1:30 when Sara was here to babysit, I was rushing Yerachmiel Meir out the door and I realized Mr. Sponge (I was calling him "Bob" Sponge) was still sitting bulking up in a glass baking dish on the table. So I basically handed Bob l'Eponge off to Sara, which was, of course, exactly the right thing to do. Came home to a house that smelled yeasty and delicious and the final pro

Two more cuties!

Isn't he a cutie???

So many pictures of Gavriel Zev, I forget sometimes that he's not my only cutie-pie... :-))) And here's a rare shot I let him take of me pretending to savour yesterday's yummy quiche supper. This is my "hippy regalia" this week - happy-face necklace and all...

Busy, busy!

Oh, blurg... Naomi's getting a sniffle... Busy busy during naptime yesterday getting Abigail's present together. Wow! Wait 'till I post it here... that will be exciting! But I did take a few minutes to make a lovely supper to make up for the great failure of Monday evening: Tuesday Supper! Spinach Quiche (hint: start with frozen crust & frozen Tabatchnik cream o' spinach soup) Rice (because it's all Naomi eats) Soy / sesame / teriyaki green beans Mmm... Tonight's supper was slightly less glamourous: Wednesday Supper! Leftover lovelies! Leftover Cookoo's wings from Sunday night, leftover Shabbos meatballs, leftover corn & kugel, and a package of vermicelli rice. Had to run out in the middle of supper for swimming lessons. It is SO hard in the cold weather. I wasn't sure whether to take Naomi because of her sniffle, but in the end, persistence prevailed and swam we did. Ack. So cold! But next week is the last class and next month is SPRI

Total supper failure :-(

Sigh... here it is, for posterity. ~ Macaroni (wacky mac) ~ Tinned tomato soup ~ Tinned peas At least nobody went to bed hungry And we had a friendly time around the supper table In my defence, Ted worked late and we had a busy day... went to Avra in the morning, then drove Ted to work, got pizza, took Naomi to her dance class, drove home, nummies, nap... It was after 2 before I got any kind of a break. Still, should have planned ahead, I guess. :-( Tomorrow.

I'm done!

Every article these days feels like a major, pulling-teeth level accomplishment. I'd like to think it gets easier with each one, but maybe I'm not quite there yet. Anyway, each one down is some type of feather in my pillow; someday, I'll lie back on the pillow I've "stuffed" one feather at a time and write easily again... oy, what a stupid metaphor.

I'm procrastinating!

Supposed to be working on an article, but oh, well...I was actually dreading this weekend, but it's turned out not too horrible. Took the bigs to mini-golfing last night. I decided at the last minute - Shabbos went out almost too late to do anything, but still too early to send the kids straight to bed. We hadn't planned ahead, but I told each of the kids they could bring a friend. YM's friend was busy, but Elisheva's friend Shula said yes, so then YM said he wasn't going... but he caved and had a great time. I accidentally left the scorecard behind when I returned the clubs (doh!) but kept the dumb little pencil (doh!), so I couldn't tell you who won. Pretty sure it was ME. :-))) I had a bunch (ok, 3) of Craigslist/Freecycle pickups this morning, but it turned out they were all in the Junction, only about half a block apart. Scored a bag of prefold & flat diapers that I will turn into fitteds someday when the serger is working well again (:-((( s

Shabbos dinner...

Sweet-sour crockpot meatballs but I did them in the oven. Strawberry streusel muffins Broccoli / potato kugel Corn! Chicken Soup Challah   Yum!   And Shabbos lunch:  Cholent, butter lettuce salad, rice/tuna salad?  Blah.    

Unimaginable Violence

Nobody seems to understand why I find this cartoon mirthfully funny... I think it's British; North Americans tend to spell fish fingers as two separate words, I think. I love how casual the mother is and how prep-school the kids look. And they are genuinely afraid of the unimaginable violence. I can't even imagine it! I found this coaster back when I was a single mother and it summed up my entire parenting attitude at the time: "go ahead, ask me what your choices are."These days, I like to think of myself as less bat-wielding and a little more flexible. But maybe I should bring back the bat for the upcoming Decade of Teenagers. Hey! I'm an inventor! See this? (at left) I invented a little pipe-cleaner "spider" that sits on top of drinking glasses to turn them into little vessels for propagating windowsill coleus cuttings. I saw a site that suggested using chickenwire bent over the top of a glass, but really, who has spare chickenwire just ly

Oy...

Where do I start? Yesterday was Family Day in Ontario! So, of course, Ted was working, Elisheva had school, and my father asked if I wanted to earn a few $$$ doing some data-entry at his work, which was closed that day. He gave me the key to the office and said the door was fiddly, but if I played around with the thumb-thingy, it would eventually open. Fine. Naomi had a playdate (yay!) in the a.m. and then we rushed home for lunch, nummies, nap. YM was home and EC had an early day at school because of the holiday, so I ran around getting all 4 kids organized for 1 pm when my mother was coming to babysit. She came early, I got out the door just a few minutes past and got downtown really fast - no traffic! Quick stop at 7-11 for a productivity-boosting snack and I was on my way across the street to the old U-Lock-It. Then I couldn't get the door open. There were two keys: one to the padlocked outer gate (because it's right downtown at College & Spadina; I guess to d

Tonight's Supper - was a BIRTHDAY supper, obviously...

Made by Mommy. Mommy-made everything:  pasta, onion soup, garlic bread.  Mmm... heavy on those starches, quite light on the veggie stuff that chills me from the inside in the middle of winter.   Cake. Ice cream. Yum!   MENTAL NOTE:  We LIKE onion soup and it's very simple.  I have ramekins downstairs and a circle cookie cutter to cut out rusks from ordiary bread.  Why don't we eat it more often?!?

This post's all about MEeeee!!!

I'm THREE! So proud! Albeit somewhat exhausted at the end of a LOOoong and exciting evening...

More winter stuff!

Today's winter-sown seeds, all from SASEs: ~ Pink cleome ~ Liatris ~ Dianthus (sweet william) ~ Red Peony Poppy The "boat" shaped supermarket chicken tub holds ~ Sweet Pea "Royal Family" So many seeds... so little time! I love how they look on these little benches... like they're just waiting for a bus or something to come along & carry them away. I've been told it's important for them to get snow, rain and sun even while they're waiting for spring. So I've lined them all up at the mercy of the elements. Still SO dubious... :-)))

Growing stuff!

Coleus Count: 25! Here are today's new potlings... pretty runty. Most of the sturdier ones have been moved from the greenhouse to the open countertop; I want to keep the greenhouse from getting too crowded and moist, since the seedlings are having damping-off issues. :-( Here are some coleus seedlings from an SASE that came up, but now I am afraid they have damped-off and wilted. :-((( The season is already getting off to a horrid start. BUT! The butterfly bush seeds (buddleia davidii) have sprouted!!! Please, please, PLEASE... don't let the damp and fungus of this horrid, horrid house get to them.

This rocks... ;-)))

The boy had it!!!

Oy!  I had already offered him a reward, too... he MOVED them!  Yay!  Now, to fit it into the box...   <3 J (very tired from searching late last night... remind me to wring his neck after I give him his 2 mini-eggs reward)

Shabbos supper

Hmmm...   ~ Challah ~ Soup / kneidlach ~ Spinach kugel ~ Corn ~ Chocolate chip cookies ~ Hmm... some kind of chicken - but what?  :-)))   Shabbos lunch:   ~ Teriyaki salmon w/noodles - not proper udon noodles, though :-( ~ Cholent ~ Spinach kugel left over ~ Corn salad (yes, left over)   So tired.

What have I accomplished?

Here's my to-do list from Wednesday so I can see what I've accomplished.   Done: Make supper! Swimming lesson tonight Finish Sara's present Tutor new student on Skype (aaargh, I have never used Skype, and she's never used a mouse!) (made a mess of this, though) Coordinate 1 visit and 2 major interviews for upcoming CJN education supplement article (now I just have to do the interviews, write the article, etc) Decide what to make Naomi (I'm thinking a sock Beluga, but doubt my abilities to create a convincingly cute one) Make up wipees for someone who's coming to pick up 48 of them on Friday Feed & care for 2 little ones Pick up or arrange drop-off of YM's new Palm   Not done: Make supper! & care for 2 little ones Take care of YM over extremely long weekend... (he's off Thursday afternoon, Friday and Monday) Make Naomi's gift Prepare more wintersown flats   LAUNDRY!!!  I have not folded a single laundry item this ent

I'm selling Sara's Jammies!

How cool is that??? A pre-mama ordered 48 wipees, so I made them up using some cast-off partly-shredded jammie pants that she didn't want anymore. The full pants made 16 wipees each, the two pairs of boxers (foreground, left) made 8 wipees. The other side is some yummy sage sherpa that seems to go with anything. There are also a bunch of teddy-bear wipes from a brand-new (I think) Value Village receiving blanket. Total cost: $0.99 for the receiving blanket, maybe $4 worth of sherpa. She's paying $24 - yes, they're $0.50 each, and make a wonderful baby present for cloth diapering parents. If they're for a gift, I use nicer, newer flannel. But still... 50 cents apiece for 6" squares of used-up jammies. That's almost more than Elvis's jammies would go for, or chunks of the Berlin wall. (do they still have those?) Looking at the pictures, these are definitely "seconds" in appearance... the stripes and plaids don't match up at all and man

Is it cheating...?

...To look at pictures on Etsy as I sew and dream of the day my talent will grow in, like wisdom teeth?   Anyway.   Supper:   ~ Superstore supermarket roast chicken ~ Kellogg's Stovetop Stuffing ~ Roasty tinned potatoes (lots of oil & onion soup mix as our friend Modia suggested!  mmmm...) ~ Tinned french-style green beans   Wow!  A well-rounded meal, tons of starch, and only about 3 seconds of "cooking" (ok, dumping out tins into pots - does that count as cooking?) But today was our early day aka hell day, with Naomi's swimming and me swimming and Elisheva's "knitting" class (they've apparently given up on knitting; she's sewing yet another bag).  And all the snow and Ted getting home late because I had the car.   Anyway, it was nice to have an easy supper.  What did I do with all the time I saved?  You'll see... :-)))  :-P  

To Do List

OK, I'm very overwhelmed this week...   TO DO:   Make supper! Swimming lesson tonight Finish Sara's present Tutor new student on Skype (aaargh, I have never used Skype, and she's never used a mouse!) Coordinate 1 visit and 2 major interviews for upcoming CJN education supplement article Prepare more wintersown flats Decide what to make Naomi (I'm thinking a sock Beluga, but doubt my abilities to create a convincingly cute one) Make up wipees for someone who's coming to pick up 48 of them on Friday Feed & care for 2 little ones Take care of YM over extremely long weekend... (he's off Thursday afternoon, Friday and Monday) Pick up or arrange drop-off of YM's new Palm   DONE:   Finished Auctionwire article - yay!  Slowly but surely...   I guess this is all manageable.  I wonder if there's anything I'm forgetting.

Overheard on the Internet...

From a discussion of unusual names  here :  "don't you think LaTweesha and Shaniqua would find Elisheva and Yerachmiel just as odd?"   Umm... yes... okay. We have a running joke here now:  on Judge Judy, there was a girl who'd been given the unfortunate name "Latrina".  Okay to that too.  I mean, it sounds SO pretty, but it's just SO wrong.   Did I mention I was going to bed? Dum dee doo... This is me... going to bed!   Must. Turn. Off. Computer.

Why?

OMG, this video has 147 views:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzLeWo5wDzQ   Don't click the link.  It is the dullest, most tedious video.  No sound either; we did it with the old camera.

Brrr....

More good food looking gross

So here's how supper turned out. I was so exhausted, I didn't even bother fluffing up the rice, but it was yummy anyway. The fish was on the bland side but everybody ate tons. Carrots well-received; to me, they taste just like tinned so why bother, but I am the only one here who likes tinned carrots, apparently. Naomi sat in her chair and cried until I let her eat the rest of her bagel with cream cheese from lunch. She did eat all her carrots, but refused to eat the remaining micro-taste portions of supper food - like 1" square of fish and ten grains of rice... ... and here's the weather outside tonight. Doesn't look it, but it's completely awful. But I'm proud of myself: I went to a shiur - for a change! First in a long time. We're doing Megillas Esther. I was so dreading it, almost on a scale with dental work. I figure it doesn't get much more tedious than Purim. I mean, it's one day, ten minute megillah, easy stuff. But it'

Supper - and why suppers?

OK, I just realized I never explained WHY I'm blogging our suppers...   Basically, making supper every day is NOT in my nature.  I'm not saying it is for anybody, but I see myself as totally the spoiled take-out princess type.  Before I had kids, I basically did eat take-out or junky non-food, literally for every single meal.  Even when the big kids were little, we often did.  But these days, everybody's growing and I made a conscious decision at some point that we'd have REAL suppers most of the time... maybe it's just called Growing Up - who knows?   Anyway, so I'm doing this to keep tabs on myself and convince myself that regular supper-making is an accomplishment to be proud of.  If staying home is my career, however-many years of decent suppers is going to be quite a notch on my résumé... so to speak.   SO...   Tonight's supper:   Oven-baked breaded sole Oven-fried rice (the same one we had last Shabbos, bc it was so yummy!) Honey-ginger c

A yummy supper that looks yucky!

But first... more winter sowing! I sure hope this thing works!!! Yesterday was Rudbeckias, including "Black-Eyed Susan" from a GardenWeb sase that I don't think is really Rudbeckia. Plus hostas, plus cosmos, plus... umm... embarrassing, but I forget. ETA: I remembered! Butterfly weed aka milkweed. Should do fine outside considering they grow wild in the backyard anyway. But these are 4 colours... lovely! Planted my first indoor tray, too! Tons and TONS of parsley - my goal is to keep those bad bugs off my veggies by luring them with parsley. One little plant last year just did not do the trick. Plus buddleia davidii (butterfly bush), plus Petunias, also free SASE seeds from GardenWeb. Can you tell I'm trying to get more butterfly action here this summer? The cosmos are hopefully to attract other good bugs. So here's the yummy supper that looks yucky: ~ Somewhat Helped Hamburger I promise, it's better than it looks... basically beef & tomato s